Musings

Running where it’s green…and fishy

Sorry about dropping off the face of the planet again. After the Mountain Man Triathlon in Flagstaff, we had to take a four-hour drive back to Vegas then hop a flight the next morning to the Midwest to visit family for a week…then back to work for me for two days before heading to British Columbia for a work-related fishing expedition for four more days.

Whew!

The trip to British Columbia, however, was incredible. The place is gorgeous and I could live there in a heartbeat. Although the winters might be a bit harsh, I’m sure they’re fairly mild on Vancouver Island. I think the ideal gig would be visiting my summer estate on Vancouver Island and then wintering in Las Vegas. All that stands between me and that dream is a few million bucks.

No biggie.

The fishing/business trip was great and I ended up with a nice 19-pound Spring (aka King) salmon for the freezer and a smaller Pink Salmon for the smoker we just purchased. I caught the Spring during the last hour of the last day and she put a noble effort for about 10 minutes before she was brought aboard and summarily given a couple swift bonks on the noggin.

The Pink was given to me by my boatmate from the group. He’s the one that took the picture above. A former Congressman and presidential candidate, he was actually a nice guy and we had some good chats about environmental resources, global warming and other good stuff. Having a small salmon canned just wasn’t worth the bother for him so he gave it to me so I could perfect my smoking technique.

Pretty generous, eh?

As far as training goes, Coach Ilg has me on a recovery program right now and I’ll continue that through this week before ramping up again to make the transition from sprint to Olympic distance.

While in Canada, I was able to sneak in one 15-minute run through the woods behind the fishing lodge. The staff required that I bring a bear bell to let any of the local black bears know that I was galavanting through their territory. They told me most would run, except one. He’d been hanging around for a while and was apparently used to people turning around when they saw him so he just stood his ground.

Unfortunately, I never ran into any bears, although I did sound like Santa Claus running down the trail.

Being surrounded by green, living things is a wonderful change of pace. I’ll have to find some trails around Vegas to hit.

Running on sidewalks, streets and treadmills is for the fish, er…birds.

 

© 2006 The Outdoor Journey.